


Skate.

by BornofFlame



Series: Sanders Sides One Shots 2: Electric Boogaloo [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Gen, Roller Skating AU, You know what I mean, joan is mentioned, logan wants to beat virgil once god damnit, man I just want a job at a roller rink, old timey roller rink, patton skips church and we don't blame him, roman is clumsy as fuck, thomas is virgils dad, thomas swears at his kid and virgil does it back, virgil is a below the knee amputee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28708059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornofFlame/pseuds/BornofFlame
Summary: Roman turns sixteen and gets a job at a roller rink because literally nowhere else will hire him and he doesn't want to get lice from working at a thrift shop again.And then he finds himself a home he never expected.
Relationships: Familial roman and thomas, Platonic Analogical, Platonic Patton and Roman, familial ThVi, platonic Princxiety
Series: Sanders Sides One Shots 2: Electric Boogaloo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100705
Comments: 10
Kudos: 48





	Skate.

**Author's Note:**

> love ya'll  
> enjoy!  
> -ky/emile

Roman was sixteen when his parents told him that they had gotten him a job at a roller rink of all places. He had been job hunting for almost two months at that point and so he took the job, grateful that it wasn’t Goodwill at least.

He was getting that desperate. Either way, he parked his bike at the back of the building on his first day, walking inside to see an older man waiting at the pass booth.

“Hi!” Roman said as he walked up. “I got a job here and was supposed to come in today for training?”

The man grinned. “Roman! Your mother gave us such a nice review. I’m Thomas, and I am in co-ownership here. Come on back.” 

Thomas opened a gate from the booth and Roman followed him to the back, past the skate rental. The back room was stocked with odds and ends and it smelled a bit like feet and lemon, and Roman wrinkled his nose.

“You’ll get used to the smell. This is the repair shop for when people break skates or blades, my son usually is back here or in the kitchen cause we have a small food area.”

“Cool.” Roman looked around. “Who else works here?”

“My co-owner Joan, Patton comes in on Sundays to avoid Mass, so he’s on the payroll, and then obviously my kid.” Thomas led him out to where the skate rental was. 

“All of the shoe sizes are on the back of the skates or the blades so that it’s easy to find and then after a skate is used, spray it out with Lysol.” Thomas pointed to the rink. There was a lone person currently on it, and they were skating scarily fast in Roman’s opinion.

“That’s my son.” Thomas leaned over the counter and cupped his hands over his mouth in a makeshift megaphone. “Virgil! Get your sorry ass over here!”

“Kay Dad!” Virgil called out as he shifted to backwards skating, much to Roman’s surprise.

 _That’s kinda hot._ His brain supplied unhelpfully. Virgil slowed, exited the rink and made his way across the carpet to the counter.

“Hello sad bastard.”

“Just showing your new coworker the ropes. Do you want to grab him a shirt from the car?”

“Fine, pass me my shoes.” 

Thomas grabbed a pair of fish flops from under the counter and passed it to Virgil, who took them and skated to a bench to remove his skates.

“What shirt?”

“Oh, it’s just a classic arcade worker kind of shirt, Virgil’s not wearing his because he’s on break till three. We have a birthday party then, and they asked for a lot of tater tots. You’ll be manning the skate rentals.” Thomas clapped his hands. “I just need to show you the small arcade area and the bathrooms and then you’ll be good to go.”

“Do I need to wear skates while I’m working here?”

“I’d recommend it unless you’re on kitchen or cleaning duty. I mean, look at Virgil, he’s practically a professional! And if you work here for eight months, we’ll buy you a nice pair of skates or blades to use during your shifts.”

Roman watched as Virgil stood, took a wobbling step and fell. “Cool.”

Thomas nodded. “Yep. You ready to go to the next spot?”

“Sure.”

…

After getting a pair of roller blades on and the shirt that Virgil had provided, Roman was waiting behind the rental counter.

Virgil walked up from the eating area, and he leaned against the counter.

“So. Why’d you decide to work here?” 

“I couldn’t find a job anywhere else.” Roman admitted. Virgil laughed.

“That’s a new one. At least you aren’t Pat. Poor kid, he only works Sundays, and that is usually the worst day.”

“Why?”

“It’s boring. But Lo usually spends all day Saturday and Sunday here. He’s almost as good as I am at skates and he’s just a twitch faster on blades.”

“Virgil! Get back to the kitchen!” Thomas called from the front of the rink as the doors to outside opened and a group of ten year olds came pouring in. Virgil saluted Roman halfheartedly before turning and fish flopping back to the kitchen.

Roman wasn’t sure whether to be amused or disturbed at Virgil’s style. Completely emo makeup, an shirt for work that was covered by the apron that he was wearing, and then the fucking flip flops that were made out of fish. 

Either way, it was amusing and as the first group of ten year olds came in to get skates, he found himself too distracted to think about it.

…

Three days passed before Saturday came. Roman got to show up early to help open up and sure enough, right as the rink opened, there was a nerdy looking teen coming in through the doors. He waved something at Thomas, who gave him an enthusiastic wave back and they walked right past the skate rental to go to where the lockers were.

Roman watched as he pulled out a pair of rollerblades and wrist guards from a locked locker. Less than three minutes later, he was on the rink, methodically moving. Roman watched him for a few minutes before Virgil came walking in, a bag slung over one shoulder as he brushed past him quietly to head to the workshop.

The morning passed slowly, only with Virgil occasionally coming out to put a fixed blade or skate back and with Roman attempting to move around and failing.

The skater came around to the rental spot around noon, right before Roman’s break.

“Can you tell Virgil I’m ready?”

“Uh, sure. What’s your name?”

“Logan, and Virgil knows me.” Logan said. Roman blinked and complied, skating over nervously to the workshop door.

“Virgil! Logan wants you!”

“Kay! Give me a minute, tell him to drink some damn water and I’ll be out in a moment.”

Roman turned to give him the message and Logan glared before he opened his mouth.

“I heard him. How long have you been working here?”

“Like four days.”

“Have you met Joan or Patton yet?”

“No.”

“Hm, okay.” Logan moved away, hopefully to get water and Roman watched as the door to the workshop opened and Virgil came out, wearing rollerblades.

“Alright, you wanna shout go for us?”

“What?”

“We usually race before Lo heads home. He keeps thinking he’ll beat me, but it’s been a year since he started.”

Virgil and Roman made their way to the rink and Roman almost fell flat on his face when Virgil handed him a stopwatch.

“Alright Logan, three laps, me in rollerblades and you getting three second head start. Princey over here will time us and say go.”

Logan nodded stiffly and the pair both went to a line that was painted in the floor, Logan looking very serious and Virgil looking nonchalant. Roman spent a minute figuring out how to start the stopwatch before restarting it.

“Okay, go!”

Logan took off. Virgil sighed and then took off after him, looking like he was sprinting after the other teen. It was definitely the most interesting thing to happen and Virgil easily passed Logan halfway through the second lap.

Virgil won.

Logan shook his hand and muttered ‘next week’ as he breezed past Roman. Virgil moved to Roman and grinned.

“Ta da!”

“I don’t know whether I should be embarrassed or impressed.” Roman teased. Virgil grinned and placed a hand in the middle of Roman’s chest.

“I could push you right now and you’d go flying.”

Roman paled. “You wouldn’t.”

“Bye.” Virgil grinned evilly.

…

Roman didn’t go to work Sunday, he went to actually spend seven hours practicing so he could look like he actually knew what he was doing when he showed to work.

It’s really awkward when you’re handing a kid rollerblades and you slip and hit your forehead on the counter.

There was a teen behind the rental counter that Roman assumed was Patton and he gave him a quiet smile as he grabbed some rollerblades off the shelf and held them out.

“Thank you.”

“Of course kiddo. Thomas told me about you, and I’m glad that you came in on your day off. Have fun!”

Roman nodded. “I’ll try.”

He managed to get to the rink without tripping on carpet. There were a few other kids skating around and it was very clear that Roman was the person with the least amount of experience. He couldn’t even let go of the wall and after a frustrating half hour, Roman made his way to the eating area to sit.

“Why the mopey face?”

“Oh hey Virgil.”

Virgil sat down at the table with him and slid him a fry basket that was filled with Tater Tots. “My Dad said you looked depressed and needed comfort food.”

“Thomas works in the kitchen?”

“Course he does, Joan hates the grease and I wasn’t always like this.”

Roman ate a tater tot. “I wish I wasn’t clumsy as fuck on these.”

“Takes practice. Took me forever to get this good and Thomas has been my dad since I was three. I was in skates by the time I was four.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I had to relearn everything when I was eleven too.”

“Why?” Roman asked.

Virgil looked down pointedly and Roman followed his gaze. Before he could look away, Virgil pulled up his pant leg.

Prosthetic. Roman gasped quiet and looked up to meet Virgil’s eyes.

“What happened?”

“Car accident. A friend was giving me a ride home from school. Car got t-boned and since I wasn’t wearing a seat belt when we rolled, I went flying out and got pinned. It's not as bad as people think it is, I mean, I’m a BKA on both legs and I’m fine.” Virgil shook his leg and the pant leg went back down to cover it. “I recovered in about a year, but that was mostly because Dad and Joan were there every step of the way.”

“Did you..”

“Yeah, I like puns about legs. Patton’s better at that though.” Virgil grinned. “When you’re done, want me to help you learn some better techniques so you don't look like a failure of a newborn deer when you blade?”

“Sure.”

…

Six months passed.

Roman didn’t quit, much to the surprise of all of his family. He wasn’t really getting better at rollerblading or skating, but that wasn’t really the reason why he was staying.

He was staying because of the polaroids in the workroom that were slowly filling the wall, memories frozen in a snap. He was staying from when the roller rink closed early and they all went out and did roller skate karaoke. He was staying for Thomas and Joan, who acted like teenagers among the employees, who were somehow better parents than his own. He was staying for when Logan came in like clockwork to train and to get his ass handed to him by an Emo who wore fish flops.

So yeah, maybe the pay was poor and the kitchen was one mishap away from a health code violation, but it was a home.

And maybe one day he could work up the courage to ask Virgil out on a date.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm choking and when you give me CPR, a piece of paper comes flying out of my lungs. You unfold it as the paramedics lift me onto a stretcher and carry me away.  
> it holds only two words.
> 
> Kudos? Comments?


End file.
